896 ARTICLE 23

An. Code, 1924, sec. 237. 1912, sec. 300. 1904, sec. 280. 1888, sec. 192. 1886, ch. 134, sec. 6.

239. Any corporation organized under the provisions of said sections,
which shall have purchased an incompleted railroad, shall have ten years
from the date of its organization to complete and finish the main line of
its railroad.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 238. 1912, sec. 301. 1904, sec. 281. 1888, sec. 193. 1886, ch. 134, sec. 7.

240. No corporation shall be established under the provisions of said
sections 233, 235 and 236, unless it shall allow and issue to this State the
same proportion of its common stock, if any, as the State shall own of the
capital stock of the corporation whose railroad shall have been purchased
as aforesaid.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 239. 1912, sec. 302. 1904, sec. 282. 1900, ch. 217, sec. 193A.

241. It shall be lawful for any railroad company heretofore or here-
after incorporated under the laws of this State to acquire, own and hold,
pledge, sell or otherwise dispose of, and to endorse, guarantee or assume
the stocks, bonds and other securities of other railroad companies of this
or any other State, and of any inland, coast or ocean transportation com-
pany or companies.
See sec. 388.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 240. 1912, sec. 303. 1904, sec. 283. 1888, sec. 194. 1886, ch. 294, sec. 1.

242. Whenever the several railroads of this State, operated by steam,
shall cross any public highway at grade outside the corporate limits of
cities, and any such highway shall be believed to be of such a character
as to render the passage of locomotives and trains thereon dangerous to
life and property, it shall be the duty of the commissioners of the county
in which such point of crossing shall be located, to notify the company
owning or operating the railroad at such point, by serving a written notice
on the superintendent or other agent of such railroad company in said
county, that the said county commissioners will, thirty days thereafter,
consider the necessity of further protection against danger at said crossing;
and if, after the expiration of said thirty days said county commissioners,
or a majority of them, shall determine that such protection is necessary,
they shall notify said railroad company through its superintendent or ticket
agent in said counfy, that within sixty days thereafter, said railroad com-
pany shall either place a flagman at said crossing, whose duty it shall be to
give timely notice to all persons using said crossing, of the approach of all
locomotives or trains, or a system of electric alarm bells, to give such notice
at the approach of trains, or shall erect safety-gates at said crossing, which
shall be closed not less than one-half minute before the passage and during
the passage of every railroad train or locomotive across said highway; or
shall change the said grade crossing so as to pass said highway with an
under or over grade crossing, in which case neither a flagman nor safety-
gate shall be required.

While law imposes duty of giving timely warning of approach of trains to crossing,
a watchman need not be kept at public grade crossing in country unless ordered under
this section. Personal injury case—contributory negligence. Penna. R. R. Co. v. Ying-
ling, 148 Md. 177.

This section referred to in personal injury case involving failure of crossing bell to
ring; contributory negligence as matter of law not made out. Balto. & Ohio R. Co. v,
Windsor, 146 Md. 435.

As to elimination of grade crossings, see art. 89B, sec. 27, et seq.